Chapter 1968: Difficulty retreating from the enemy
Chapter 1968: Defeat the enemy with difficulty
Seeing that Zhuang Zhou, Master Cihang, Yuan Tiangang, and Ma Shanwei all escaped from the city, Li Shimin was stunned.
"Prince Tang, something bad has happened. We fell into Jia Xu's plan. The old thief faked his death to deceive the senior officials of the Imperial Party, and ambushed ten Grand Master-level warriors in the city..."
Zhuang Zhou explained to Li Shimin what happened in the city with a sad face.
Li Shimin's eyes were full of gloom. He never expected that when the Qin army was besieged internally and externally, tired of running around, and thousands of his own elite entered the city, the city gate would still be closed by the Qin army.
Unexpectedly, after joining forces with the Imperial Party, a total of seven Grand Masters were dispatched, but in the end only three came back alive, and the other four Grand Masters stayed in the city forever.
The main entrance to the north gate, which was now opened by Hu Hai, was closed again by the three great masters.
Once the city gate is closed, without the additional troops outside the city, no matter how brave the Tang army in the city is, they will be exhausted by the Qin army sooner or later.
Once all the Tang troops in the city were killed, the Tang troops would have no choice but to forcibly capture Luoyang by attacking the city, but this would undoubtedly be more difficult.
It is better to take advantage of the fact that the soldiers in the city are still alive and pose a certain degree of threat to the Qin army, and use this opportunity to attack the city with all their strength in order to attack the tower in one go.
Thinking of this, Li Shimin's eyes flashed with a ruthless look, and he thought deeply: "Send the order, the whole army attacks..."
"I would like to advise Prince Tang to calm down."
Before Li Shimin finished speaking, he was interrupted by a young man, and he was Sima Yi who was rescued from Luoyang by Zhuang Zhou.
Li Shimin had the supreme status in Li Tang, and no one ever dared to interrupt when he was speaking. Seeing that Sima Yi dared to interrupt Li Shimin, all the officials in Li Tang couldn't help but frowned, labeling Sima Yi as arrogant and rude.
Li Shimin didn't care about being interrupted. After looking at Sima Yi curiously, he asked Zhuang Zhou: "Taoist Master, who is this young master?"
Upon seeing this, Zhuang Zhou quickly explained the matter of Liu Ping and Sima Yi to Li Shimin, which was what Sima Yi had told him not long ago.
Li Shimin had a surprised look on his face. He was amazed and secretly thought it was a pity, and then gave up the idea that just arose in his heart.
Although Liu Ping is Liu Xie's twin brother, with Liu Xie's death, no one can prove his identity. Even Yang Jun, who adopted him, can't prove his identity, so even if he can be kept alive
Even if he was rescued, it would not be of much use value to Li Tang.
Although Li Shimin appreciated Sima Yi's talent, he deeply disagreed with his behavior of disregarding the entire family for the sake of loyalty.
"I wonder what Master Sima has to say?" Li Shimin asked.
Sima Yi said: "The city gate has been closed. If you want to enter the city, you can only forcefully capture the tower. But now Mu Guiying and Qin Jian are at the north gate. The cost of forcing the north gate is definitely unbearable by the Tang army."
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"Master Sima, what do you think this king should do?" Li Shimin asked again.
Sima Yi took a deep breath and said with a look of reluctance: "Withdraw your troops, withdraw from Sizhou, preserve your strength, and when the Qin army changes, unite the major princes in the south and launch another army to attack Qin."
Li Shimin's face suddenly turned cold, and he said calmly: "What Mr. Sima said is reasonable, but it is too pessimistic."
Seeing this, Sima Yi wanted to say more, but Li Shimin no longer wanted to listen. He waved his hand and said, "Come here, take Mr. Sima down for treatment."
After Sima Yi was forcibly led away, Li Kui said: "My lord, Sima Yi is a great talent and has a mortal enemy with the Qin army. Since he has come out to offer advice, it proves that he has a desire to surrender. Why did my lord deliberately neglect him?"
Li Shimin looked at Sima Yi's leaving figure and said calmly: "This Sima Yi is not simple. He clearly has a lot of hatred in his heart, but he can still be so rational, which shows that this person is extraordinary."
"Then why are you still..."
"Although Sima Yi has the intention to surrender, his purpose is just to use the power of our Tang army to help him avenge the Qin army. He himself does not have much identification with our Tang Dynasty and this king."
Sima Yi thought he hid it well enough, but he didn't know that in front of heroes like Li Shimin, his little thoughts couldn't be hidden at all.
Sima Yi thought that Li Tang and the Qin army were mortal enemies, and he was an excellent target to take advantage of. Little did he know that since the birth of the idea, Li Shimin's taboos had been overcome, and Li Shimin would only treat him with kindness.
In addition, if Sima Yi can see the situation of the authorities, can Li Shimin not see it?
Didn't Li Shimin know that even if he attacked by force, he might not be able to break through the North Gate, but would only increase casualties? Of course he knew.
But even if he knew he couldn't do it, he still had to do it, which was called being unable to do it himself.
After rejecting Sima Yi's proposal, Li Shimin personally commanded the army to attack the city. As Sima Yi expected, Mu Guiying sent Qin Ji to take charge of the city tower, replacing Qin Lu, the guard who had been forced to attack the city.
Under Qin Ji's command, the defense of the North Gate was improved to a higher level, and even Li Shimin could not find a flaw for a while.
By the time Li Shimin discovered the flaw, thousands of elite Tang troops left in the city had been completely wiped out by the joint stranglehold of the Flying Tiger Army, Detachment of Women, and tens of thousands of Qin troops, with the participation of many masters.
Hearing the cries of killing in the city stop, Li Shimin knew there was nothing he could do, so he had no choice but to retreat.
"General, the Tang army at the north gate has been killed."
After hearing the report, Mu Guiying asked: "How many people were killed in the Tang army? How many people did we lose?"
"Beheaded more than 3,000 elite soldiers of the Tang Army. As for our army..."
Seeing that his men were hesitant, Mu Guiying suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart and quickly asked: "How many people were lost?"
"The total number of soldiers who died in each battalion was nearly 8,000."
Mu Guiying suddenly felt dizzy.
You know, in suppressing the imperialist rebellion in the city, the Qin army suffered less than a thousand casualties.
In the end, due to a mistake, Hu Hai opened the north gate, and in order to defend the north gate, a total of 8,000 people were killed or injured.
This is still a prerequisite for the help of the New Seven Swords, the seven masters. Without the participation of the Seven Swords, I am afraid there will be nearly a thousand casualties.
As for the three great masters, Fuxi, Zhang Sanfeng and Bodhidharma, after closing the city gate, they naturally could not continue to attack ordinary soldiers, but returned to deal with Yun Zhongzi.
"Qin Hai, you deserve to die." Mu Guiying gritted his teeth and cursed.
If Hu Hai had not opened the city gate, the Tang army could not enter the city, and the Qin army would not have had to pay these 8,000 casualties, and the Detachment of Women would not have lost two female generals in the battle.
At this moment, Mu Guiying's hatred for Hu Hai reached its peak, and she just wanted to crush him to ashes.